Awesome Interactive Panoramas Give A Glimpse At Everyday Life In North Korea

Aram Pan has always been intrigued by North Korea.
Everything he saw in the media relating to the country, though,
revolved around its leaders, military might, and confidentiality.
Pan wondered what he would see if he simply asked nicely to look
around. He found out the answer was more than he ever expected.

Pan, who is from Singapore, makes 360-degree panoramas for
various clients, including real estate brokers, hotels, and
retail stores. Utilizing fairly simple technology and setup (just
a DSLR digital camera and a tripod), he creates high resolution,
immersive panoramas that allow viewers to virtually explore a
space.

Pan wanted to create these in the DPRK, so after submitting a
proposal to the government, he was "given unrestricted freedom to
photograph just about anything except military personnel,
vehicles, and infrastructure," he told Business Insider. His
resulting panoramas and photographs, featured at DPRK360, give a totally
fresh look into life in North Korea.

Pan would often ask his appointed tour guides about a certain
aspect of everyday life in North Korea and, many times, the
guides would lead him directly to it. For example, Pan asked if
he could "swim with the locals." His guides took him to a local
water park and spa, the Mansu
Water Park (be sure to click the links to fully explore
Pan's panoramas).

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Aram Pan/DPRK360

Similarly, Pan wanted to see where people got their hair cut. His
tour guides took him to the hair salon at Changgwangwon Health Complex, which
has been in existence since 1980.

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Aram Pan/DPRK360

Pan says going to North Korea for the first time was like
"entering an alternative universe." "Suddenly, there are no
advertisements or billboards, no internet, and nobody is rushing
around at double speed," he told Business Insider. There are
certainly no billboards at the Mansudae Grand Monument, which features massive
bronze statues of former Presidents Kim Il-sung and Kim
Jong-il.

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Aram Pan/DPRK360

Another thing that surprised Pan was a large trade fair in Pyongyang he attended. "I
did not expect to see the sheer amount of businesses entering
North Korea and how so much foreign currency was moving about,"
he says.

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Aram Pan/DPRK360

Other interesting places Pan visited included the Meari Shooting Range, which allows participants to
bring the fowl they shoot at the range to an adjacent restaurant
where it can then be cooked for them.

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Aram Pan/DPRK360

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Aram Pan/DPRK360

He even got to visit the newly renovated Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum,
a place with a strict "no photography policy." The museum
documents the history of the Korean wars, from the perspective of
North Korea, of course.

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Aram Pan/DPRK360

Pan tells us this project was an attempt to demystify North
Korea. However, Pan says after months of travel all over the
country, he didn't see any work camps or starvation, which left
him with more questions than answers. In fact, many aspects, such
as this beach near Wonsan, seemed almost
normal.

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Aram Pan/DPRK360

Pan hopes the North Korean government will start to trust him
more and show him even further behind the curtain, like in the
Grand People's Study House, seen below. Pan says that the North Korean
government is actually very connected to the outside world,
adding that "Yes, they will most definitely be reading this
article, too."

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Aram Pan/DPRK360

Be sure to visit Pan's website to see tons more pictures, videos, and
360-panoramas, and check back often; Pan is planning on going
back to North Korea this week.